


Seven Stories of Uncles and Nephews

by Redrikki



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Drabble Collection, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 18:50:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1358131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko couldn't ask for a better father than his uncle and Iroh loves the boy like a second son.  7 very short stories written for Irko Week 2009.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lost Lotus

Iroh’s niece and nephew had amazingly neat handwriting considering they were only six and eight. Or were they seven and nine by now? They wrote nearly every month and their letters were always simple: _how are you, I am well, come home soon_ , with amusing tales of their small adventures. This week it seemed Zuko had lost the lotus tile from his Pai Sho set. It had gone missing after Azula lost and knocked the board over in a fit of pique. Iroh chuckled at their childish antics and made a note to send a replacement with his next letter.


	2. Understudy's Debut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the first time in his life, Iroh is jealous of his brother.

After Ba Sing Se, it is a year, a year lost to grief, despair and the Spirit World, before Iroh returns to the Fire Nation, but there is a boy waiting for him on the pier when he does. For a moment he’s fallen back fifteen years and that is Lu Ten welcoming him home from the Hu Sin provinces. But this boy is too tall and his eyes too pale, too solemn to be his Lu Ten. This is Ozai’s son. Iroh’s heart breaks again at the realization and for the first time he is jealous of his brother.


	3. Harmless Old Men and Angry Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uncle's gone missing and someone is going down.

These fools don’t know who they’re dealing with, Zuko thinks as he follows the obvious trail the soldiers have left behind. His uncle’s captors had a head start, but Iroh would do his best to slow them down. Uncle probably fed them his I’m-a-harmless-old-man-who-would-never-hustle-Pai-Sho act and they probably thought he was a friendless, washed-up, has-been, just a sad old man without pants. They thought they could capture Uncle Iroh and get away with it, but they would learn. When he caught up with them, Zuko would teach these Earth Kingdom scum what happens when you mess with Fire Nation royalty.


	4. Drowning in You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ship is sinking and Iroh holds on the only way he can.

Iroh crouches in the shallows, soaked to the bone in winter-cold water, and cradles his nephew in the shelter of his arms. Their ship is a towering inferno behind them but Zuko is here, safe and breathing. Iroh smooths back the boy’s damp, slightly singed hair with shaking hands. His face is a mass of bruise and scar but he will be fine. This could have been so much worse. His nephew shivers with cold and shock and Iroh pulls him in close. He knows Zuko will protest when he wakes, but, until then, Iroh will not be letting go.


	5. Little Teapot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko, Iroh and tales of the unreliable narrator.

“Do you like your new teapot?” Zuko tries not to sound hopeful. It’s his fault the Dragon of the West is reduced to this, begging in the street and making tea from poisonous weeds, but Zuko’s trying to make up for it. They’re worse than banished, nothing can make up for that, but he’ll still try. He always tries.

“To be honest with you,” Uncle sighs, “the best tea tastes delicious whether it comes in a porcelain pot or a tin cup.” 

Zuko forces himself not to flinch from yet another person who rejects what little he has to offer.

*****

“Do you like your new teapot?” Zuko leans against the cave wall, indolent and smug, and Iroh sighs. The boy doesn’t understand. Yes, they’ve lost the trappings of wealth and power, but it doesn’t matter as long as they have each other. Old doors are closed behind them, but new roads, maybe better roads, are opening up before them they can walk together.

“To be honest with you,” Iroh tells him, “the best tea tastes delicious whether it comes in a porcelain pot or a tin cup.” He sits down beside his nephew and tries to make the boy understand.


	6. Pretty Girls and Boar-q-pine Quills

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko has a date and Iroh needs time to prepare.

Jin has gone but Zuko is still standing there looking bewildered and mildly alarmed. “I told you she liked you,” Iroh gloats, giving his nephew’s shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Come,” he says, steering to boy towards the back of the shop, “we have a lot to do.”

Zuko nods woodenly. “I-I have to wash dishes,” he mumbles like any of that matters now.

The boy drifts towards the sink and its stack of dirty tea cups and Iroh takes a moment to consider his nephew’s sturdy, utilitarian robes. “We need to find you some nicer clothes.” They can’t really afford anything new right now, but one of their neighbors has a son Zuko’s size. “You can’t wear those.”

“To wash dishes?” Zuko looks up, confused, his hands full of dirty cups and soap suds.

“For tonight,” Iroh sighs. Honestly, sometimes he wonders what goes on in that boy’s head. “And we need to do something about your hair.”

“What’s wrong with my hair,” Zuko asks, nervously fingering the dark tufts bristling every which-way from his head like the quills of a boar-q-pine.

“Hmm.” Iroh rubs his chin. “Nothing a few hours of hard work wont fix,” he teases. It’s not that bad really, just a little messy, but Zuko looks genuinely alarmed now. Looking at the near panic on the boy’s face, it suddenly occurs to Iroh that his nephew may actually be a bit shy. “Relax, nephew,” he says, laying a comforting hand on Zuko’s arm. “You’ll do fine.”


	7. Scent Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko kept the sandal and Toph thinks it’s sweet.

Zuko carries around his uncle’s sweaty, disgusting sandal. The others think it’s gross, but Toph thinks it’s sweet in a smelly, messed-up sort of way. She can almost imagine Zuko curling up with it at night, trying to breath through his mouth and pretending his uncle is there. Did Iroh have something of his nephew’s like that back when he was following Zuko around the Earth Kingdom? Toph wonders if her parents are like that with her things now that she’d gone and tries to tell herself she doesn’t wish she’d thought to take something of theirs when she left.


End file.
